Conventional fuel nozzles are manufactured in multiple pieces produced from castings that have an overall diameter at least equal to the largest diameter of the parts. Consequently, a large quantity of material is removed, especially if the section with the largest diameter is only a small fraction of the parts. The time and cost for manufacturing parts are thereby increased. Moreover, nozzle parts need to be re-positioned in the machine tool for various operations, which increases the difficulties of manufacturing the fuel nozzles since each repositioning requires that the part be precisely realigned with reference to the machine tool in order to keep tolerances within the desired level.
There is a need to provide improved manufacturing methods which can greatly simplify the manufacturing of gas turbine fuel nozzles, thereby reducing the manufacturing time and cost.